Trans*: Hystories, Bodies and the Unbuilding of Worlds

While transgender has mostly been discussed in the last decade in terms of making bodies and selves, Jack Halberstam will discuss the work of unmaking that is performed by the appellation of trans*. With this shift in focus, the wrong body, an appellation used mostly for people who have felt themselves to be out of place, out of time, comes not to claim right but to dismantle the system that metes out rightness and wrongness. This talk will offer examples of protest performances drawn from the 1970’s to argue for anarchic trans* feminisms oriented towards unbuilding and unmaking worlds, and will therefore, re-contextualize the agency of restless, transitive, hysterical bodies of the present.

The talk is followed by an open conversation with Jack Halberstam and moderated by Johanna Braun.

This guest lecture is part of the UCLA event series #masshysteria. Hysteria, Politics, and Performance Strategies. For more information please visit www.performing-hysteria.com

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